A quiet coup makes Joyce Senate leader of Nationals

Michelle Grattan

ON THE day Malcolm Turnbull rolled Brendan Nelson, there was another changing of the guard in the Coalition. Maverick senator Barnaby Joyce ousted Nigel Scullion as the Nationals' Senate leader.

Unlike the fanfare surrounding the main game, this was a quiet, private affair. So private that Nationals leader Warren Truss did not know until afterwards. Senator Joyce rang to tell him, but could not get through because Truss' mobile phone was on the blink. He left a message.

The poacher had turned gamekeeper. Or, perhaps more alarming for the Coalition, the poacher may have managed to establish a poachers' union, of which he is chief organiser.

Senator Joyce, from Queensland, was elected at the 2004 election. He created some merry hell for the Howard government, which from mid-2005 had control of the Senate by a single vote - effectively Senator Joyce's.

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He was willing to criticise his government and cross the floor. His view was always that the Nationals should differentiate their brand within the Coalition. Relations were often tense between Senator Joyce and the then leader of the Senate Nationals, Ron Boswell.

After last year's election, Northern Territory senator Nigel Scullion became Nationals deputy leader and leader of their five-member Senate team. But the team's complexion changed with the post-July 1 Senate.

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John "Wacka" Williams (NSW) replaced Sandy Macdonald, whom he had defeated for preselection. Senator Williams is a political free spirit of the Joyce ilk; the two are close.

"Wacka" supported the Joyce bid. Senator Joyce had already won over the other NSW senator, Fiona Nash. That gave him the necessary three out of five. The coup was effected in discussions in Senator Nash's office late on Tuesday. It was formalised by the senators at 7.30am yesterday.

Senator Nash, the Nationals' Senate whip, was the one who tapped Senator Scullion on the shoulder. The ex-fisherman wasn't happy. But he still had his deputy leadership, albeit of a diminished party - yesterday saw the swearing-in of independent Rob Oakeshott, who has replaced former Nationals leader Mark Vaile in Lyne.

Senator Joyce networks widely inside and outside his party. He has built a relationship with West Australian Nationals leader Brendon Grylls, whose party is in minority government with the Liberals. He was quickly off to South Australia to see independent Nick Xenophon, elected to the Senate last year; he dined with Senator Xenophon on the evening of his maiden speech.

After the recent merger of the Liberals and Nationals in Queensland, Senator Joyce is part of the Liberal National party there, members of which divide into their separate party rooms when they reach Canberra. The new party is dominated by the Nationals, who want to use it to flex what muscles they have left.

Taking a leaf out of Mr Turnbull's book, Senator Joyce, a former accountant who hails from the small Queensland town of St George, says he is "humbled" by his new role.

"We Nationals have to give people clearer reasons to vote for us," he said yesterday. "You'll probably see less differentiation of Barnaby and more differentiation of the Nationals."